Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site ever

Menu

Homework 17th October

Chestnut Homework Friday 17th October – due back Wednesday 22nd October

Following our fantastic and inspiring talk on Wednesday by Scott, your homework is to write a letter to thank Scott for coming in to school to share his knowledge about fossils and evolution.

Can you mention which parts of the talk you found most interesting?

Which new facts do you now know?

Your other homework this week is a competition designed by Scott:

Art competition: Life in the seas of Europa.

Background: Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, at the same time the earth was formed. It has been of interest to astronomers for hundreds of years and is possibly the single most promising candidate for hosting alien life in our Solar System to date.

Its icy surface was formed about 40-90 million years ago; whist planetary surface temperatures are well below freezing, it is thought that beneath Europa’s ~20km thick crust an ocean of salty liquid water exists, perhaps a hundred kilometres deep, warmed by the internal heat.

Cut off from light and the planetary surface it is thought that Europa’s salty subsurface ocean is oxygenated by radioactive decay within the ocean and ice shell.

Photosynthetic surface-dwelling life is considered extremely unlikely to exist on Europa due frigid surface temperatures of between -193 C and -153 C. However, the slightly alkaline (pH 8-9), Europan ocean represents a relatively warm (~-3 C) chemical-rich environment and easily forms the strongest candidate medium for hosting astrobiology within our Solar System.

Task: Given what you know about early life on earth and considering the environment on Europa: